Darwin - Day 60

Fletcher : today we went to a World War 2 mine tunnel, which is a storage tunnel for oil.  It had tonnes of photos and on the other wall was one of the soldiers hand prints.  Then we walked around town and went up a lift and over a bridge.  We went to a shopping centre and had subway for lunch, Mackenzie had a chicken sub and I had a meatball sub and we shared a frozen sour citrus from McDonalds.  Then we went back to the caravan park to pick up Bentley from a day care and then we had to go to the shop again.  When we came back we met some friends and they were going to the pool and we were going to so we played with them there.

Mackenzie: Today we went to the World War 2 tunnels it has lots of pictures of the war.  Then we had a look at the beach and the wave pool, tomorrow we will be doing it.  Then we went to the shops and we had subway and shared a slushie.  Fletcher went to EB games and I went to a book store.  We went back to the caravan and got Bentley because someone was looking after Bentley.  Dad got some mince then we went to the pool and we met some people and played with their kids.  For dinner we had spaghetti, yum.

Today was the big day, Bentleys first time being looked after, Day care as the kids called it.  We had him booked in for 10.30am and pick up at 4pm so he was in for a big day.  We took him over, all the way to the van across the road!  Julie was waiting for him and was happy to see him, we said goodbye without making a fuss and then remembered we wanted to tell her he wasn't a dog you could have off the lead, I went back over and here he is sitting up on the chair next to her where she was working on the laptop, I think he is in for a very exciting day of spoiling.  Off we went towards Darwin, we found a high rise park that was free for the first 2hours, we were so shocked we were reading the fine print for the catch, none- just free for 2 hours, got to love that.  We walked across the road to the World War 2 Oil Storage tunnels which is a self guided tour.  The lady gives a little bit of information before you go in and some pamphlets.  So here I am without thinking walking into these massive underground tunnels, well I have been in a cave so what's a tunnel between friends?!  She said to watch the water on the ground, oh great now my hearts beating fast.  It was only when I came out I asked her why there is so much water in there, "there was a blow out in the base of the other tunnel", glad I found this out after the tour, but it happened 30 years ago so not much to worry about I think.  The other water is just natural runoff  as they are on a water table but hey these tunnels are from WW2 and built by hand, the Burnley tunnel leaks and it is modern engineering at its best.  The tunnels were mainly built by men who were unable to fight in the war due to injury, illness or age.  They are enormous and amazing, it is so overwhelming to be in them and like the memorial at Adelaide River it is sad to think what these men and women went through.  The kids are both learning so much, emotionally too,  Mackenzie said today she can not believe that these people fought to save us and they didn't even know us & we weren't born yet.  And Fletcher wishes he could meet them and say thank you for looking after our country.  It is as much as I had hoped them to take in, I was proud of both of them. The photos in the tunnel showed a story of a different life & time to ours and again makes us embarrassed to be complaining about the heat or a dirty camp site. There were also many photos of the planes and Darwin being bombed, it was great to see these as an adult, I do remember studying at school but you have a different understanding & appreciation as you get older.  We headed out of the tunnels, there is still 2 used by the services for training purposes and also one that is under the parliament house, she said the front entrance has been sealed from view and she has no idea what it is used for but knows it is still in use, I would love to be a fly on the wall to see what is down there.  We went for a look at the wave pool and beach that they have made at the waterfront and walked across the bridge link to the city.  We went to Casuarina Shopping Centre for a look around and we stopped at Harvey Norman for a hand vaccum for the van as we were sick of using the half pan and brush, it was time for us to go to pick up Bentley.  He was very happy to see us but I'd say sad to say good bye to Julie, he'd been for walks, been to the pool and shared Jatz biscuits with her.